Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

US blocks Sinn Fein fund raising

Times of London:

THE US Government has banned Sinn Fein from fundraising following White House anger over the IRA’s continuing involvement in crime.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, and other members of the party have been ordered not to take part in any fundraising during their traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to America this week.

In a further blow to Sinn Fein, The Times has learnt that the British Government has set a deadline of the end of this month for a plan to stop the party from benefiting from millions of pounds of foreign donations.

Underlining the diplomatic shift against Sinn Fein and the IRA, The Times has learnt that the threat level for Irish republican terrorism in the UK has been raised for the first time since the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998.

This response follows the near-terminal blow to the peace process caused by the accusation from the head of the Northern Ireland Police Service that the IRA was responsible for a £26 million bank raid and the murder of Robert McCartney in a Belfast bar. The threat level is now “substantial”, one below “severe general” which is the current status for international terrorist threats to the UK.

The ban on fundraising was delivered privately to Mr Adams through US State Department channels. Diplomatic sources said it was made clear that such activities, normally a crucial part of Sinn Fein’s links with Irish Americans, would be unacceptable.

It is the latest in a series of hostilities from President Bush, who has frozen Mr Adams out of all official engagements during his visit to Washington and kept the doors of the White House firmly closed in his face.

US Senator Edward Kennedy has also called off talks with Mr Adams, it emerged last night as Peter King, Sinn Fein’s leading backer in the US Congress, called for the IRA to disband, saying their recent actions had fuelled growing hostility within Irish-American circles.

Who is going to defend murder and bank robbery? Could Adams survive turning over the thugs to law enforcement? He has lost his effectiveness. The mask has been pulled from the political face of the IRA. It is a very ugly sight.